SIT Graduate Institute/SIT Study Abroad SIT Digital Collections Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection SIT Study Abroad Spring 2004 In Search of the Truth: Modern Church-State Relations in Yunnan Province Kathryn Rosenbaum SIT Study Abroad Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/isp_collection Part of the Political Science Commons, and the Religion Commons Recommended Citation Rosenbaum, Kathryn, "In Search of the Truth: Modern Church-State Relations in Yunnan Province" (2004). Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection. 535. https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/isp_collection/535 This Unpublished Paper is brought to you for free and open access by the SIT Study Abroad at SIT Digital Collections. It has been accepted for inclusion in Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection by an authorized administrator of SIT Digital Collections. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Rosenbaum 1 In Search of the Truth: Modern Church-State Relations in Yunnan Province “Citizens of the People’s Republic of China enjoy freedom of religious belief.” Article XXXVI, Constitution of the People’s Republic of China “China is a land where Christians, particularly those in the underground church, are often under attack. China recently launched a campaign of persecution against Christians who are not registered in the official state church.” Gospelcom.net Kathryn Rosenbaum SIT: Yunnan Province Spring 2004 Rosenbaum 2 Abstract The relationship between the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Protestant church is a complicated relationship that varies greatly with time period and location. This paper explores the interactions from various viewpoints, the history of the relationship, the legislation pertaining to the relationship, and a brief study of the interactions in two very different locations in Yunnan Province—Kunming and the Nujiang valley. Introduction Since the 1980s, China has seen drastic changes that have affected almost every element of life. From the Deng Xiaoping era onwards, China has opened to foreign influence and trade, placed a large emphasis on development, especially economic development, and has greatly loosened the grip of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) over its people. Despite this general opening, elements of society has been impacted to different degrees at varying periods of time. Religion is an institution that has encountered a varying relationship with the CCP. From Buddhism that many Chinese all over China practice to the Falun Gong, each religion has a specific relationship with the government. Officially, five religions are recognized in China as being legal and separate religions; these include Buddhism, Daoism, Islam, Catholicism, and Christianity. 1 This paper will explore the recent relationship between Protestantism and the government, including legislation, a brief history, and the perspectives of different groups of individuals. As the relationship not only varies by time period, but also greatly by geographical location, the final part of this study is a comparison between the church-state relationship in two distinct places in Yunnan Province: Kunming and the rural Nujiang valley, an area mainly inhabited by minorities. 1 Here, “Christianity” refers solely to non-denominationalist Protestantism, as the Chinese government defines Catholicism and Protestantism as completely separate religions. In this paper, both Christianity, Christians, and the Christian Church refer solely to the Protestant faith. Rosenbaum 3 A brief history of the relationship between the CCP and the Protestant Church in China. Since 1949, the relationship between the Protestant church in China and the Chinese government has fluctuated greatly. After Liberation in 1949, churches were greatly persecuted as being bourgeois and a tool of imperialist powers. Under Deng Xiaoping, China began a process of opening up and as a result, reforms created a Chinese church that works legally under government control. Today, the situation varies from place to place with the attitudes of local and upper level authorities regionally, and at the district and local levels. Starting as early as 1921, the Chinese Communist Party proclaimed the Marxist ideal that religion was the "opiate of the people" and that it was a feudal and bourgeois remnant.2 According to the ideology of the time, religion shows the oppressive capitalism conquering the working class and was a tool of imperialist power over China3 because of the great amount of influence they had on their pupils and the fact that the theological education was conducted mainly in English with English reading materials.4 The Missions of the 19th century also coincided with such events as the Opium War and Unequal Treaties, so "Missionaries and colonialism in China were inseparable, at least in the minds of the Chinese."5 At the same time, missionaries told their Chinese pupils that the atheistic Communist ideology is Godless.6 During Liberation, the plight of the missionaries and the status of Christianity and, indeed, religion in China, embarked on what would become a rough journey through persecution and regulations. In 1950, 40 Chinese Protestants under the leadership of Wu Yaozong met and published the Christian Manifesto—Creating a Chinese Church for a New China. This document, eventually signed by 400,000 Protestants, about half of the known Protestants at that time in the country, was a complete revamping of Protestantism in China. Among the aims of this document are 2 Orr, Robert. Religion in China (Friendship Press, 1980), 31. 3 Ibid., 32. 4 Ibid., 40. 5 Kauffman, Paul. China, the Emerging Challenge: A Christian perspective (Baker Book House, 1982), 82. 6 Orr, Religion, 29 Rosenbaum 4 that Christians, Churches, and Christian organizations must see and show the imperialist wrongs that have infiltrated the religion.7 A part of the manifesto itself says that the Church must “rid itself of all traces of imperialism, to give first loyalty to the people’s government, and to maintain unquestioning obedience to the Communist Party.”8 In short—this was a complete admitting of the wrongs that missionaries had done, a rejection of foreign interference and influence, a self-examination of the religion and purging of imperialist aspects, and a dedication to patriotism and the CCP. In 1951, the next step came in the growing government dominance of Protestantism. In this year, a group of church leaders met in Beijing to meet about the disposal of American missionary-sponsored properties in China. However, the true purpose of this meeting was revealed by the spokesman who presided over the conference proceedings. He said “the mission of this conference is to cut off thoroughly all relations between the Christian church in China and American imperialism and to help the patriotic Christians to promote a new movement for independence, self support, and independent propagation of the Faith, so as to realize the decision of the government administrative council.”9 The most monumental consequence of the conference was the formation of a new organization—the Oppose-America, Aid-Korea, Three-Self Reform Movement of the Church of Christ in China. The name of this organization changed to the Three-Self Reform Church, and later, the widely-known Three-Self Christian Patriotic Movement (Henceforth often referred to alternately as the TSPM, TSP Church or Three-Self Church), the official church of China.10 The three selves are self-government, self-propagation, and self-support. A striking example as to what the church in China was going through at this time comes from a list of “Patriotic Resolutions” from a Shanghai district in the late 1950s. Included in this list of eleven resolutions are the Five Don’ts: “don’t break laws, 7 Orr, Religion, 32. 8 The Christian Manifesto, 1950 9 Reynolds, M. H. JR. “The Church in China” ( Foundation Magazine, January-February 1982). 10 Reynolds, Stockwell, Orr, among others. Rosenbaum 5 preach reactionary doctrine, use healing promises to get converts, invite free-lance evangelists, attend or preach in home services,” Observe the Five Must’s: “cooperate with the government’s religious policy, expose free-lance evangelists and home services, be economical, discipline one’s body, and take part in every socialist campaign,” follow the Five Loves: “country, party, socialism, the Three-Self Movement, and labor.”11 Other resolutions include building political study for pastors and laymen, teaching pastors at least six patriotic songs, guaranteeing 85% of church members’ participation in social campaigns, and having a criticism meeting every three months to check the progress on these points.12 In other words, the churches were forced to become patriotic. As to the type of oppression that was going on at this time, sources vary as to what extent there was persecution. Mao Zedong said, even in 1957, that people get rid of religion through education, discussion, and criticism—not through coercion or repression.13 In the early Mao era, the majority of Christians were even patriotic socially and economically—just not philosophically or theologically.14. In the Cultural Revolution, however, everything changed. Christians all over China were persecuted, and Mao’s Red Guards wrecked havoc on believers and anything relating to Christianity.15 While on the campaign to eradicate religion, all Bibles and Christian literature were confiscated, any remaining vestiges of institutionalized Christianity were stifled, all church buildings were